Seasonal Styling for the Soul

A series of nature-inspired installations, crafts, wreaths & ornaments to bring joy!

A little summer floral styling from yours truly.

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This Sunday’s post was supposed to be the beginning of a new practical series for paid members on bringing the outside in and styling up your home for the seasons to bring joy and a little mindfulness. I was going to start the series off with a dried floral installation and give you a step by step guide. However, the weather has not been kind and even with photographic lighting I’m not getting the right vibe, so I’m going to wait a couple of days till it’s brighter before I make it and film the whole thing for you.

If, like me, you are holding on to the end of summer, then you’ll be happy to know that the first installation will indeed be a late summer extravaganza. It’s not autumn until 22nd of September and even then I think we can clasp onto the last vestiges of warmth and light for a couple of weeks. I promise the first installation will be in your inbox next Sunday.

Over the coming weeks and months I’m going to be making floral/foliage displays, pumpkin art, wreaths, swags and Christmas ornaments as well as a few showstoppers for you to try at home too. The idea is that we accept the changing of the seasons and celebrate them as much as we possibly can to keep spirits high. So today, as there is a slight change to the schedule, I thought it only fitting that I bring back my second ever Substack post from behind the paywall. It’s all about seasonal styling and enjoying the seasons as they happen, rather than wishing away time. There are so many more of you lovely people than there were a year ago, so thousands of you probably haven’t read it.

I have re-written it to reflect the passage of time and the changes that have happened in my life since last August, including a house move and a publication name change! I’ve also re-recorded the audio version, which is now on this post too. Please forgive the background noises. It was impossible to find somewhere silent yesterday. Hope you enjoy it and I can’t wait to show you the first seasonal installation next week.

Bring the Outside In!

My life so far has been a rich, if not slightly worn tapestry of experiences and overall, even the bad ones I wouldn’t bother changing. My early days of living an almost nomadic existence (note I did not spend my childhood in a desert with only a goofy camel for company) moving from house to house, school to school, made me acutely aware of change. I was always the wretched new boy and an easy target for being made fun of. For someone who was painfully shy back then, moving on was often terrifying. I still don’t think my parents really understand what they put us through. But, on a positive note, it also made me realise how important it was to not only accept change, but to be brave and learn how to celebrate it and make it a reason to have fun. Otherwise, I was going to spend my life being afraid and bloody miserable. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

I really believe that happiness comes from truly embracing change. Not that you can be happy all the time, that would be very peculiar and a tad too Stepford Wives for my liking. But, I do think it’s possible to try and be as happy as you can be most of the time. There’s always something to smile about, even if it’s just irony.

So many people are scared of change and it seems the older you get, the more frightened you become. To me, change is nearly always good. I’m not being a know-it-all twat. I’ve just had the most ridiculous amount of change in my life from the offset and now I’m numb to it. In fact, I think I thrive on it. We might not think change is a good thing at first. But, that’s because most of us like familiarity and hug it tightly for fear of losing control. God forbid we should lose control!

Big changes in our lives, like our kids fleeing the nest, divorce, or selling up and moving to pastures new, can be supremely daunting. How will we cope? Will we ever be happy? I’m not a doctor, I’m not an expert, but what I do know is that if we start training our minds that change can be good with something small, like the transition of the seasons, then the bigger things do seem to be less overwhelming.

You’d be astonished at the amount of people that don’t really notice the seasons, let alone celebrate them. As every summer saunters into fall, before you know it the “moment” you were supposed to cherish is over. It’s so easy for us to float through our lives like a sycamore helicopter seed spinning toward certain winter. We’re so busy “spinning”, just getting by, that we miss the true wonder of the world around us.

So, today, on this rainy miserable Sunday, STOP! Take a moment, exhale. It’s only the first weekend of September. It’s late summer (I know it doesn’t look like it, but stay with me) and you are allowed to just ‘be’. You’re allowed to snuggle up, read a book and listen to the rain. When it clears, listen to the quiet. Watch as the tiny pool of water that has gathered in the centre of a your favourite rose spills over and drips down its stem, hitting thorns as it travels. Is that a hint of blue sky?

Take time to notice things. Changes are constantly taking place all around you. Contrary to what Instagram might have you believe, it is not yet autumn! But, there are tiny nods to it. My agapanthus have bloomed and withered and would now be busy making seeds if I hadn’t removed the stalks last weekend. The Cox’s Orange Pippin apples are falling from the tree in my new garden. I’m leaving most for the birds. I don’t know if you felt it, but there was a quite a chill in the air this morning and I also noticed condensation on our single-glazed Crittall windows. Very glad they are being replaced before winter sets in. But, it’s also still balmy at night and I can still see the wine glass in front of me by 8pm without lighting the garden candles. Perhaps we’ll have an Indian summer?

Truly embracing the seasons and national holidays has always been my pot of joy. Welcoming the seasons with open arms allows us to not only enjoy our life more by being excited about change, but we can also create an inspirational and beautiful home. By bringing the outside in we can celebrate the mini revolutions that are taking place in the world around us. We can allow nature to nurture our souls. The tiniest of seasonal suggestions in our home can enrich our lives. Sometimes, all you need is a bunch of flowers in a vase to transform a space and conjure a smile.

My seasonal style is often quite extravagant, some might say slightly OTT, but I do also love simplicity. I’m going to take you through the seasons over the coming months and years and show you both sides to my style and how you too can harness the natural world around you and nurture your own style to glow up your home and lift your spirits. I’m here for it, I’m all over it. Are you with me?

Natural wood, a well placed plant and rustic coastal vibes

My mum loves the seasons. She was pimping up a branch she had found in the woods decades before the dawn of Instagram. That’s where I originally found my inspiration for my first Insta branch named Luca. He received a great amount of use. I miss him, actually. I might have to resurrect him this autumn. Just so you know, I name a lot of the inanimate objects that I love. I have a thing for anthropomorphism.

As children, we were very used to seeing my mother covering a large twig with glitter or colour-dyeing hollowed-out eggs. She would bring flowers and foliage from the garden inside and display them all over the house. She loved it and she instilled an appreciation of it in me too.

Everything I ever do now in interior design terms is about bringing the outside in, connecting the interior with the outside world. I’ve now gone so far as living in an house that is actually made of tree trunks. In every room I’m surrounded by centuries old oak which is a constant reminder of the endurance and perpetuity of nature.

Even my latest transformation was all about capturing natural daylight, whilst retaining privacy. To me, nature, our gardens and the seasons are intrinsically linked to us and the way we live. Our homes, our interiors should reflect those changes throughout the year. In my mind, a room isn’t complete without an element of the outdoors within it.

Even in some of my more outlandish seasonal installations, such as the year I went crazy with three foot long candy canes and over-sized baubles (don’t get saucy!) on our front steps, I was still celebrating the season with child-like joy, inspired by the colour of snow and the deep crimson of holly berries. Inside the house that year, I continued the theme purely with foraged holly, ivy and snow berries.

I am at my happiest when walking in the forest with my ever-ready pair of secateurs, just in case I spy the perfect clump of bracken, or a cluster of jewel-like rose hips. Being in the moment and instinctively aware of the small natural gifts around you is an art that many of us never learn, but which I believe we should all try in earnest to succeed at.

Those natural treasures can be taken home and arranged to nurture your home, create a pleasing aesthetic and enhance your daily life. Walking past something so intrinsically perfect and beautiful every day can’t but have an effect on your mood.

Being mindful of the beauty that surrounds us and the plentiful supply of completely free styling props is life changing. I always remember a quote from my favourite book by Alice Walker, The Color Purple: “I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it. People think pleasing God is all God cares about. But any fool living in the world can see it always trying to please us back”.

Something happened to me that changed my life a few years back and I naturally just started noticing the world around me. A near death experience can do that to you. The deep cerise of the Monarda flower in my garden, for example. Its pointy petals and the intoxicating fragrance of bergamot. It got me thinking: why only have this beauty outside? Why can’t we use it to enrich our lives inside.

Now, buying a bunch of flowers and shoving them in a vase has been around for centuries and is certainly nothing ground-breaking. Growing that flower yourself though and then harvesting it specifically to make the inside of your home pretty is something else. We have a print of one of the famous Andy Warhol Marilyn artworks. Our colourway uses cerise pink. Taking a plentiful bunch of that Monarda flower, mixing it with seasonal foliage and then placing it in a contemporary vase in the same room as the artwork creates unity and flow and, in turn, entirely lifts the space and our hearts.

A great interior somehow has a link to the outside world within it. You could call it biophilic design, using sustainable materials and lots of plants and natural products, but it’s more than that. If it is at all possible, I like to physically link a space to the outside. Even in the most difficult of spaces you can make use of a window, a view by drawing the eye to it by using paint, wallpaper and fabric.

When I first see the interior of a house, if it has tiny windows, too many walls, or doors in the wrong places, all I want to do is rip through the clutter and noise and open it all up. In every home we have ever owned, if I can’t see a journey from the front door, if I can’t see the garden, then it has to change. I want to see the sky. I want to see trees. I want the outside to entice me with its light and its airiness. It can’t do that if there’s a whopping great big wall in the way. Sometimes you just need to move the wall. It can prove expensive, but linking the interior to outside is the best money you could ever spend.

The current entrance to our barn leads to a long dark corridor with no view of the outside world. That’s going to change! Plans are being drawn up as I type this sentence to reconfigure a lot of the internal walls, removing the long corridor and linking the rest of the house to the garden, much more than it currently is. Can’t wait to show you the plans.

A clever way to allow your home to reflect nature is to use botanical patterns on wallpaper, upholstery fabric, or even shower panels. Last year, before we moved house, I installed botanical print shower screens in our guest shower room. It really was like showering in a rain forest!

Whatever your budget, wherever you live and whether you have a garden or not, you can use the seasons as your inspiration for your interiors. You may not live near a forest. You may not be able to afford to spend some of your wage packet at the local florist. But, using nature in your home can be free, or almost free. You just have to make sure you follow the rules of foraging, which I will go into in another post as we start to think about autumn.

You can also mix it up by using faux plants and stems to decorate your home. For the price of an Indian takeaway you can buy three beautiful faux stems of magnolia flower and make it look incredible in a vase. You’ve got them forever and can use them as the basis of a room design. I’ve collected many faux stems over the years. A lot of people might say I’m not really helping the environment by buying plastic. But, I think if I use them over and over throughout my life, then they went to very good use. If I had to buy three faux stems of one thing, it would be eucalyptus. I’ve used it a hundred times to bulk out natural floral displays, saving me a fortune. I am growing eucalyptus in my garden too, but the faux stems still help to create a larger, more impressive display.

House plants are the easiest solution to creating a sense of the outdoors within a space. There’s huge evidence that it’s good for your health too as plants purify the air we breathe and impact our mental health in a positive way.

Bringing the outside in isn’t just about bringing a Monstera, cut flowers and foliage into your home though. Anything from the natural world works, even if it has been manufactured using natural products. For example, the use of natural wood grain furniture (this does not include chip board or mdf) can ground your home and create a warm, inviting ambience. I particularly love the use of reclaimed, preloved furniture. There’s something very special about owning an object, or piece of furniture that has a history. It adds character as well as a talking point to a home.

I have a collection of antique bobbins in my living room. The patina of the aged wood is particularly pleasing, as are the various shades of blue thread that is wound around them. My mother-in-law asked me once why on earth I had 16 oversized bobbins on my coffee table. “Because they’re beautiful and they make me happy when I see them”, I replied. She scuttled off with bemusement.

In the homes I have curated I have used copious amounts of driftwood, antique coral and sea fans, large pebbles, acorns, dried grasses and cow parsley. I even have old bird’s nests and termite-eaten tree trunks. The textures, patterns and colours of the world all add to the intrigue of a nature-inspired home. I’m constantly collecting old natural dead crap basically. What is one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

There’s a plethora of free styling props right on your doorstep. You just need to know what to look for! If you continue to follow me and read my weekly columns, then I promise you that you will be inspired to style up your home with the seasons and you’ll feel all the better for it. I’ve never been in a gang, but I’m very happy to have started my own right here on Substack. A slightly mad seasonal styling, natural dead crap hunting gang. Do you wanna be in it?

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